Literally the only experience I have with MK is Dero and I fucking around on a stream. Needless to say, we're not good at it by any definition. I can't remember if that was 2 or 3, though. Lots of fun either way.

Also, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was heart breaking. All the optional bosses are recycled, you're bombarded with way too many party members for a character/story driven game, it's only mildly difficult at best and the entire world was completely rearranged (which makes sense contextually in game, but still felt really weird and upsetting). I think also with the cliffhanger everyone's hoping against hope for a 4th game that puts it right, but I'm not holding my breath.

Cameron wrote:

Definitely agreed with the sentiment that there are too many party members. The last two party members you get are really poorly developed and receive little to no actual screen time, though I also found that once you get Amiti, Sveta and Eoleo, there's pretty much no point in using Rief, Karis or Tyrell, as the former do pretty much the same thing as the latter, only better.

I remember thinking that I genuinely appreciated getting Eoleo, as it felt like a more direct tie-in to the previous games. Eoleo being 40-something actually felt weirdly satisfying, in that "oh, yes, here is something that actually comes directly from the previous game and wasn't created solely to complete your party", although it still could have been handled a bit better. Amiti was okay, but I remember thinking that I would have liked having Piers back a lot more. I wasn't a big fan of the ridiculous number of new empires and kingdoms or whatever that popped up from nothing, but claimed to be ancient. Amiti was fine as the son of Piers, but his coming from Ayuthay was weird.

This all having been said, I still maintain that it would have been better if they kept the same system as the first two games: complete the game with a team of four, then release a second game with another team and then they join up later. It would allow for more complete character development and enable players to get a true feel for the attack style they prefer. As it is, I was never sure who I wanted to play as because there wasn't enough time to really legitimize a strategy, so I just went with the default "everyone gets their own djinn and no experimentation is performed."

Cameron wrote:

I am also hoping for a 4th game, but sadly I don't think we'll get one anytime soon due to Nintendo neglecting the series.

Nintendo really missed a nice opportunity to include Isaac or SOMEONE from this series in SSB4. I would have preferred that over Wii Fit Trainer or whatever the hell, and I know that a lot of other people were hoping for him too.

What really bothers me is that they basically threw out everything about the first two games as far as geography is concerned. I understand that canonically speaking the Golden Sun was supposed to bring immense change to everything when it came back, and I wouldn't have had a problem with it, but they handled it so poorly. Continents aren't in the same places as before and none of the cities from the first game, so they didn't even get a chance to show how this massive change has impacted everyone's lives for the last 40 years. It's like the original people and places in general just don't exist anymore. One of the sweet things about the second game was playing it for the first time and then seeing how events from the first game have subtly or not-so-subtly affected this new environment. The very first town you go to is filled with people recovering from that monstrous tidal wave, and then a good portion thereafter is dedicated to people dealing with life after the fact. It was good storytelling.

Coupled with the fact that all of these weird, new empires act and feel as if they've been around for centuries, and even the super fucking huge and apparently ancient structures like the wall and the Temple of the Moon or whatever in the were-people kingdom that just plain didn't exist before, then... fuck. I don't know.

Rant over, sorry. I still get really upset when I remember it. I guess GS: DD was my first real disappointment as a grown up gamer.